Nikki DeCaires photo by Brian Chu Photography
Seattle-Kobe Female Jazz Vocalist Competition Winners
Nikki DeCaires and Tiia Freeman were recently named the winners of the adult and high school divisions (respectively) of the 13th Annual Seattle-Kobe Female Jazz Vocalist Auditions held at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in March. They will represent Seattle in Kobe, Japan, at the Kobe Shinkaichi Jazz Queen Vocalist Contest in early May.
Café Racer to be Sold
Café Racer owner Kurt Geissl recently announced he will be putting the beloved bar/restaurant/venue up for sale, citing “increasing concerns with family, responsibilities in [his] full-time ‘second,’ job and the desire to do other things [that] contributed to this decision” on the café’s Facebook page.
Café Racer has become a mainstay on Seattle’s music scene, as the host to the weekly Racer Sessions and performances by La Luz, Country Lips, Ravenna Woods, Lonesome Shack, and more. It is also the meeting space for a variety of clubs and social organizations.
“I never really knew what Café Racer meant to people until after the tragic shooting [in 2012],” Geissl said. “The outpouring of love and support from the community was amazing and the fact that we, as a community were able to come back from it shows that there is a need for places like Café Racer in the world.
“My dream is that someone would like to keep the café going in the same manner as it has been for the last twelve years. The community deserves it.”
Jazz Radio
88.5 KNKX hosts Saturday Jazz Matinee, Jazz Sunday Side Up, Ken Wiley’s the Art of Jazz, and Jazz Northwest, in addition to its weekday NPR and late-night and prime-time jazz programs. Full schedule and info at knkx.org.
Abe Beeson hosts The New Cool, Saturdays, 3pm, featuring 21st century jazz inspired and informed by the sounds of today, hip-hop, funk, electronic & punk rock, followed by Robin Lloyd’s Jazz Caliente, 5pm, where jazz meets Latin rhythms.
Jim Wilke’s Jazz Northwest, Sundays, 2pm, features the artists and events of the regional jazz scene. For JazzNW podcasts of archived programs, see jazznw.org.
Jazz NW in April: April 2, the all-star finale from last summer’s Jazz Port Townsend featuring Terell Stafford, Sean Jones, Grace Kelly, Wycliffe Gordon, Taylor Eigsti, John Clayton and Matt Wilson recorded in McCurdy Pavilion at Fort Worden; April 23, singer Jacqueline Tabor and her quartet in an Art of Jazz concert at the Seattle Art Museum.
90.3 KEXP, late-night Sundays, features Jazz Theater with John Gilbreath, 1am, and Sonarchy, midnight, a live-performance broadcast from the Jack Straw Productions studio, produced by Doug Haire. Full schedule information is available at kexp.org and jackstraw.org.
Sonarchy’s April schedule: April 2, Matt Shoemaker, a solo show focused upon the electronic treatment of sonic phenomena, Shoemaker employs microphones, recorders, computers, and acoustic instruments to creates compositions that uniquely imagine a space encrypted to the point of vanishing; April 9, Pi, first heard in 2003, this is a massive demonstration of band power replacing sequencers in electronic music, with Thomas Bell (bass), Kevin Sawka (drums), Leif Dalon (keys), Dave Carter (trumpet), Franklin Mazzeo (electronics); April 16, Big Band Thing, produced by drummer Don Berman, 10 players perform Ascension NW based on John Coltrane’s Ascension; April 23, Todd Bishop’s Pop Art 4, jazz interpretations of the music of French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg, with Rich Cole (sax), Dan Duval (guitar), Chris Mosely (guitar), Jason Goessl (bass), and Todd Bishop (drums); April 30, Moraine, Dennis Rea’s band aims at prog rock partisans, jazz aficionados, and metalheads.
91.3 KBCS, features creative and improvised music on Flotation Device with John Seman and Jonathan Lawson, Sundays at 10pm. The Monday night lineup includes The Caravan with John Gilbreath at 7pm, Straight No Chaser with David Utevsky at 9pm, Giant Steps with John Pai at 11pm, and The Shape of Modern Jazz with Gordon Todd at 1am Tuesdays. Shows can be streamed anytime at kbcs.fm.
91.7 KSVR Mount Vernon, Doctor Dee hosts two nights of jazz, Fourth Corner Jazz, featuring recordings of live performance in Northwest Washington, Sundays, 6-7pm, and The Doctor’s Den, Mondays, 8-10pm.
94.9 KUOW, Saturdays, 7pm, features Amanda Wilde’s the Swing Years and Beyond, popular music from the 1920s to the 1950s. More at kuow.org/swing_years.php.
102.9 KLOI-LP Lopez Island, Mondays & Fridays, 3pm, Joy Spring with Gary Alexander, classic jazz and the Great American Songbook.
Hollow Earth Radio, hollowearthradio.org, Fridays at 6pm, biweekly, Black Roots Radio, hosted by Jordan Leonard, promotes jazz as a dynamic genre rooted in the Black American experience.
Hollow Earth Radio is Seattle’s freeform online radio station that supports the local music communities in the greater Pacific Northwest and tries to create an open, encouraging stage for underrepresented voices. More at facebook.com/blackrootsradiojl and hollowearthradio.org.
